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IRANIAN APT GROUP TARGETS IP CAMERAS, EXTENDS ATTACKS BEYOND ISRAELIRANIAN APT
GROUP TARGETS IP CAMERAS, EXTENDS ATTACKS BEYOND ISRAEL

The Iran-linked group Emennet Pasargad aims to undermine public confidence in
Israel and Western nations by using hack-and-leak campaigns and disrupting
government services, including elections.

Robert Lemos, Contributing Writer

November 5, 2024

4 Min Read
Source: Muhammad Toqeer via Shutterstock


An Iranian cyber-operations group, Emennet Pasargad — also known as Cotton
Sandstorm — has broadened its attacks, expanding its targets beyond Israel and
the United States and targeting new IT assets, such as IP cameras.

In an advisory published last week, the US departments of Justice and Treasury —
along with the Israel National Cyber Directorate (INCD) — called out the change
in tactics and noted that the group had provided resources and infrastructure
services to Middle Eastern threat groups by operating as a legitimate company,
Aria Sepehr Ayandehsazan (ASA). In addition, since the beginning of the year,
Emennet Pasargad has scanned for IP cameras, targeted organizations in France
and Sweden, and actively probed a variety of election sites and systems,
according to the government advisory.

"Similar to the Emennet campaign that targeted the 2020 U.S. Presidential
election, the FBI judges the group's recent campaigns include a mix of computer
intrusion activity and exaggerated or fictitious claims of access to victim
networks or stolen data to enhance the psychological effects of their
operations," the advisory stated.

The latest intelligence highlights Iran's increasing use of cyber operations as
a way to target its perceived enemies. In 2020 and 2022, Emennet Pasargad
created disinformation campaigns to target the US presidential and midterm
elections, posing as Proud Boys volunteers and sending fake videos to Republican
lawmakers. The US Department of Justice indicted two Iranian nationals for the
crimes, as well as for sending threats through email and attempting to hack
election websites.

Related:DPRK Uses Microsoft Zero-Day in No-Click Toast Attacks

Over the past year, Iran has stepped up its attempts to use cyberattacks to
disrupt its enemies using bolder tactics, says John Fokker, head of threat
intelligence for Trellix, a threat detection and response firm.

"Since October 2023, the beginning of the Israeli-Palestine crisis, Iranian
hackers have intensified their activities against the United States and Israel,
targeting critical sectors such as government, energy, and finance," he says.
"We have observed Iran-linked actors disrupting organizations by stealing
sensitive data, conducting denial-of-service attacks, and also deploying
destructive malware such as ransomware or wiper strains, like the Handala
wiper."


IRANIAN CYBERATTACKERS BROADEN THEIR SIGHTS

Emennet Pasargad often operates by posing as a legitimate IT services company,
ASA, as a front for accessing large language model (LLM) services and to scan
and harvest data on IP cameras. The group has "used several cover hosting
providers for infrastructure management and obfuscation," the Joint
Cybersecurity Advisory added.

Related:South Korean APT Exploits 1-Click WPS Office Bug, Nabs Chinese Intel

The use of a cover organization to hide operations and make them seem legitimate
is a common approach for Iranian threat actors, says Tomer Bar, vice president
of security research at SafeBreach, a breach and attack simulation platform
provider that has offices in Tel Aviv. For instance, Charming Kitten, or APT35,
conducted reconnaissance and attacks under the guise of two companies, Najee
Technology and Afkar System, which were sanctioned by the US Treasury Department
in 2022.

"The usage of a cover company is not new, and it has been used by Iran both for
espionage and distractive purposes," Bar says.

It also gives groups the ability to use commercial services as part of their
infrastructure and hide their activities — for a time, Trellix's Fokker says.

"Threat actors have to acquire resources, software and hosting for their illicit
activities," he says. "Having a 'legitimate' front company will make it easier
to acquire these services and can serve as additional backstopping to give a
plausible deniability."


GOVERNMENTS, BUSINESSES SHOULD TAKE STOCK

The changing tactics underscore that organizations need to continually adjust
their defenses to head off threat groups. Companies and government agencies
should only buy technology and software from trusted vendors, and should make
sure that those vendors have their own supply chain validation and
vulnerability-remediation processes.

Related:BlankBot Trojan Targets Turkish Android Users

The Joint Cybersecurity Advisory called for organizations to review any
successful authentications to network or cloud services that come from virtual
private network services, such as Private Internet Access, ExpressVPN, and
NordVPN. In addition to regularly applying updates and creating a resilient
backup process, companies should consider deploying a "demilitarized zone" (DMZ)
between any internet-facing assets and the corporate network, validating user
input, and implementing least-privilege policies across their networks and
applications.

SafeBreach has encountered attackers regularly scanning LinkedIn for workers who
update their profiles with a new position, sending a spear-phishing text or
email as a company administrator requesting that they log in to a corporate
system. The attackers then capture the victim's credentials through a malicious
link.

Trellix's Fokker also stresses that companies should focus on their connected
devices, applying patches for cameras and other hardware, using network
segmentation to protect them, and regularly scanning their own IP space, before
an attacker does.

"More and more governments are exploring the proactive scanning of IP spaces and
notification of domestic organizations as an additional layer on top of stronger
manufacturer requirements," he says. "First and foremost, it should be the
responsibility of the organization itself. However, it will help if the
government assists in this process and alerts unknowing organizations of their
vulnerable cameras."

Don't miss the latest Dark Reading Confidential podcast, where we talk about
NIST's post-quantum cryptography standards and what comes next for cybersecurity
practitioners. Guests from General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) and
Carnegie Mellon University break it all down. Listen now!

Read more about:

DR Global Middle East & Africa



ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Robert Lemos, Contributing Writer



Veteran technology journalist of more than 20 years. Former research engineer.
Written for more than two dozen publications, including CNET News.com, Dark
Reading, MIT's Technology Review, Popular Science, and Wired News. Five awards
for journalism, including Best Deadline Journalism (Online) in 2003 for coverage
of the Blaster worm. Crunches numbers on various trends using Python and R.
Recent reports include analyses of the shortage in cybersecurity workers and
annual vulnerability trends.

See more from Robert Lemos, Contributing Writer
Keep up with the latest cybersecurity threats, newly discovered vulnerabilities,
data breach information, and emerging trends. Delivered daily or weekly right to
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